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Alvaro Morata was supposed to be the future at Real Madrid. He was meant to be the next Raul, the rare exception, a club trained star good enough to make it through the youth ranks and into the star studded starting eleven. And, despite a €20M transfer to Juventus last summer, the 22-year-old might yet become that thanks to a €35M buyback clause that can be triggered within three years of his sale.
According to reports in Spain, though, all of that could change this summer with Liverpool eyeing up the young star as a potential marquee signing. Madrid would have the chance to trigger their option before a deal could go through, but if the Spanish giants don’t see an immediate future for him at the club, it’s possible Liverpool could swoop as they did for Emre Can when they nabbed the German before Bayern Munich were ready to buy him back from Bayer Leverkusen.
As for the player, Morata has had a solid debut season for Juventus, scoring six goals and adding four assists in 19 Serie A matches. With only six of those appearances starts and the rest off the bench, it means he’s scored a goal every 135 minutes with a better than 19% strike rate. It’s a fantastic return on limited minutes for a player who despite his move away from Madrid still isn’t getting the kind of playing time he desperately needs at this stage in his career.
All of which makes for an unusual situation. The talent is clearly there, and his finishing has been phenomenal, but Morata isn’t yet the player he was supposed to be. But despite that, he wouldn’t be cheap. Liverpool have had success looking for bargain untapped or underdeveloped talent, both in Italy with Philippe Coutinho and at striker with Daniel Sturridge. Morata, though, would be far more expensive—at the very least costing more than the €20M Juventus paid.
Still, the upside is there to land a potential €50M striker for a relatively low fee, and Liverpool have been rumoured to be interested in Morata in the past. The club also showed with Lazar Markovic last summer that they are willing to pay big for potential if they rate it highly enough. Whether Morata would fall in the same category for Brendan Rodgers and the transfer committee is an open question, but at any rate it’s an intriguing name to add to the list.
